Sherborn's Stormalong Cider expands to Leominster

Sherborn was once known as the top producer of alcoholic apple cider in the United States. Leominster, the birthplace of Johnny Appleseed, has a long history of apple orchards.

Now, Stormalong Cider is putting both of those communities' histories in the can and into bottles. Opened in 2014 in Sherborn, Stormalong recently expanded its production to Leominster, opening a manufacturing facility inside the New England Apple Products building on Industrial Road.

“Sherborn has been a really good place for us,” said Stormalong owner Shannon Edgar, a 1990 graduate of Holliston High School. “This will allow us to increase our production by 10.”

Stormalong, named for the legendary folk hero Alfred Bulltop Stormalong – a mythical Massachusetts sea captain said to be 30 feet tall who drank cider by the barrel – has also changed its packaging and added a new cider.

The core ciders, Legendary Dry and Dry Hopped, are now available in cans, rather than 500 ml bottles. The latest year-round cider is Mass Appeal.

“Our niche is we use a blend of cider apples and we tend to be dry ciders,” said Edgar. “A lot of mass produced ciders use concentrate and they taste like ‘apple soda.’ That’s not us. We’re always educating people, but there’s still work to do.”

The Legendary Dry lives up to its name – it’s a dry cider with just a hint of tartness. It also uses a dozen different apples.

Dry Hopped is brewed with Citra hops, while Mass. Appeal is probably the most approachable of the year-round ciders. It almost smells like what you expect an apple orchard to smell like.

Stormalong also produces two separate series of ciders that are still packaged in 500 ml bottles.

The first is the Grand Banks series, which is a collaboration with Bully Boy Distillers of Boston. They brew a cider and age it in various liquor barrels. Currently, a whiskey barrel-aged cider is available, as is a rum barrel-aged cider. Edgar said this may be the last batch of the rum barrel version, so what is in stores currently is the end of it.

They also brew what is known as the Rare Apple Series, which uses apples that aren’t commonly seen in the United States. The Boston Heirloom uses Roxbury Russett and Baldwin apples, while the Kingston Black is brewed with Kingston black cider apples.

Although those apples are often hard to find, Edgar said it is worth it.

“To us, apple selection and blends are paramount,” said Edgar. “We have a small orchard where we grow some of the hard-to-find varieties, and we also have relationships with specific growers in New England to source these apples. We are fortunate in New England to have some of these heirloom varieties still in the ground, and hope to educate consumers and the industry about the importance of these cultivars in making a high quality cider”

Norman Miller is a Daily News staff writer. Email him at nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call 508-626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/section/blogs01?taxid=646&start=2. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @RealBeerNut and on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerBeerNut.